Title 7 — AgricultureRelease 119-73

§9202 National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 116— - NATIONAL BIO AND AGRO-DEFENSE FACILITY › § 9202

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility as a national security lab to research, test, and build ways to prevent, find, respond to, or reduce harm from animal pests, animal diseases, and diseases that spread from animals to people, whether natural or deliberate. It has eight main goals, including combining animal and human disease research; tackling high-risk and foreign animal diseases and biological threats; avoiding duplicate federal work; coordinating a research plan; training people; sharing data with federal agencies; and partnering to develop diagnostics, vaccines, drugs, and other responses.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §9202

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility shall be a national security laboratory asset to provide integrated research, development, and test and evaluation infrastructure to improve preparedness and response capabilities to prevent, detect, respond to, or mitigate harm resulting from animal pests or diseases and zoonotic diseases for the purpose of defending the United States against bio- and agro-threats, whether naturally occurring or intentional.

(b)Pursuant to subsection (a), the mission of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility shall be to protect the food supply, agriculture, and public health of the United States, including by—

(1)integrating agricultural, zoonotic disease, and other research, as appropriate;

(2)addressing threats from high-consequence zoonotic disease agents, emerging foreign animal diseases, and animal transboundary diseases;

(3)addressing biological threats;

(4)ensuring that research conducted at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility addresses gaps that fall between the ongoing animal and zoonotic disease research efforts across the Federal Government and does not duplicate those ongoing efforts;

(5)facilitating, integrating, and coordinating the development and implementation of the strategic plan for research under section 9203(a)(2) of this title, relating to protection of the food supply, agriculture, and public health of the United States;

(6)providing appropriate education and training to prepare for and respond to bio- and agro-defense threats;

(7)sharing data and related information with appropriate Federal departments or agencies, as requested by the heads of those departments or agencies, or as necessary, to support biological material threat assessments; and

(8)sharing data and related information, and developing strategic partnerships, to enhance the carrying out of the duties of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility for the development of priority zoonotic animal disease diagnostics, vaccines, drugs, and other countermeasures.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 9202

Title 7 — Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73